What did the end of the Civil War mean?
For the South: A Tale of Ruin
The depot in Atlanta, after Sherman’s March
For the North: A Tale of Two Stories
• Economic Opportunity – rebuild
the South with northern free
labor ideology, invest in
southern infrastructure
(especially RR) and help the
South industrialize,
“carpetbagging”
• Social Opportunity – educate
southern blacks through the
Benevolent Society
and its reform organizations,
especially school teachers;
bring South into 19th century
with abolition and more
egalitarian society
Carpetbaggers and the Scalawags
Carpetbaggers, also a term of derision, were white
business people from the North who moved to the
South during Reconstruction, 1867-1877. Many
Carpetbaggers were former abolitionists who
wished to continue the struggle for equality, while
others Carpetbaggers saw the reconstruction of
the South as a political or economic opportunity.
For African-Americans: A Fresh Start
• Social Changes – freedom,
opportunity to marry, to solidify
their family ties, migration to
West, clothing upgrades,
autonomous churches (Baptist),
prioritizing education (pooling $ to
learn in basements)
• Political Wants – should be able to
vote, testify in court, serve in
government
• Economic Desires – till own land,
to take control of the conditions
under which they labored, and
carve out the greatest possible
economic independence.
One of the many Freedmen’s schools in the
postwar South. These schools drew African
Americans of all ages, who eagerly sought the
advantages offered by education. (Library of
Congress)
Mr. Jeff Rainer
Key Questions
1. How do we
bring the South
back into the
Union?
2. How do we
rebuild the
South after its
destruction
during the war?
4. What branch
of government
should control
the process of
Reconstruction?
3. How do we
integrate and
protect newlyemancipated
black freedmen?
1. How do we bring the South back into the Union?
Ten Percent Plan
(1863)
Wade-Davis Bill
(1864)
Andrew Johnson
Plan (1865)
Congressional
Reconstruction-1867
Proposed by:
President Abraham
Lincoln
Proposed by:
Republicans in
Congress
Proposed by:
President Andrew
Johnson
Proposed by: Radical
Republicans in
Congress
•
•
•
When 10% of the
•
voting population in
the 1860 election
had taken an oath of
loyalty and
established a
government, it would
be recognized.
Must abolish slavery •
Pardon to all but the
highest ranking
military and civilian
Confederate officers.
•
Required 50% of the •
number of 1860
voters to take an
“iron clad” oath of
allegiance (swearing
they had never
voluntarily aided the
rebellion ).
Former Confederate
gov’t officials and
military officers
could not vote or
hold office
•
Pocket vetoed by
President Lincolnfeared harsh terms
would alienate many
whites in the south.
Offered amnesty
upon simple oath
to all except
Confederate civil
and military
officers and those
with property
over $20,000
(they could apply
directly to
Johnson)
Required states to
ratify the 13th
Amendment
abolishing slavery.
•
•
•
•
Former Confederate
states must pass 14th
and 15th.
Amendments.
Divided the south
into 5 military
districts.
New state
constitution must
guarantee voting
rights to blacks.
Empowered African
Americans in gov’t
and supported their
education.
2. How do we rebuild the South after its destruction
during the war?
• Southern leaders hoped to transition from
an agricultural economy to an industrial
economy. A “New South” if you will.
By 1890, 40,000 miles of RR track crisscrossed the South- nearly four times
the amount in 1860.
• An alliance between powerful white
Southerners and Northern financiers
rebuilt railroads and factories. Thriving iron,
steel, and cotton mills appeared in
numerous towns across the south.
• For many African-Americans, however, they
returned to plantations owned by whites
where they either worked for wages or
became sharecroppers. For many AfricanAmericans, sharecropping was little better
than slavery. The Civil War had ended
slavery, but Reconstruction had left many
ex-slaves trapped in poverty.
In 1880 there were 160 cotton mills in
the South. By 1890, there were 400.
Tenancy & the Crop Lien System
Furnishing Merchant
 Loan tools and seed
up to 60% interest
to tenant farmer to
plant spring crop.
 Farmer also secures
food, clothing, and
other necessities on
credit from
merchant until the
harvest.
 Merchant holds
“lien” {mortgage} on
part of tenant’s
future crops as
repayment of debt.
Tenant Farmer
 Plants crop,
harvests in
autumn.
 Turns over up to ½
of crop to land
owner as payment
of rent.
 Tenant gives
remainder of crop
to merchant in
payment of debt.
Landowner
 Rents land to tenant
in exchange for ¼
to ½ of tenant
farmer’s future
crop.
Sharecropping
3. How do we integrate and protect newly emancipated black
freedmen?
Amendments and laws passed to help freed
slaves:
• “Civil War Amendments”
-13th Amendment- abolished slavery
-14th Amendment- Granted citizenship to all
persons born in the United States.
Declared that no state could “deprive
any person of life, liberty, or property
without due process of law. Guaranteed
equal protection of the laws.
-15th Amendment- guaranteed black men the
right to vote
• Freedmen’s Bureau
-Helped feed and cloth war refugees.
-Helped former slaves find jobs.
-Provided medical care.
-Built schools for African-American children
4. What branch of government should control the process of
Reconstruction?
When President Andrew Johnson attacked the 14th Amendment, Radical
Republicans in Congress were angry and moved to oust him. The Tenure of Office
Act forbid the President to remove any officials [esp. Cabinet members] without
the Senate’s consent, if the position originally required Senate approval. When
Johnson fired the Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, the House of Representative
moved to impeach Johnson. An 11 week trial in the Senate resulted in Johnson
being acquitted by a vote of 35-19 (one vote short of the required 2/3’s vote to
convict and remove the president from office).
The Balance of Power in
Congress
State
White Citizens
Freedmen
SC
291,000
411,000
MS
353,000
436,000
LA
357,000
350,000
GA
591,000
465,000
AL
596,000
437,000
VA
719,000
533,000
NC
631,000
331,000
Black & White Political Participation
Reconstruction Acts of 1867
 Military Reconstruction Act
*
Restart Reconstruction in the 10 Southern states
that refused to ratify the 14th Amendment.
*
Divide the 10 “unreconstructed states” into 5
military
districts.
The Collapse of Reconstruction
•
Ku Klux Klan (KKK)- Most notorious and
widespread of the southern vigilante groups.
4 Main Goals of the KKK
–
–
–
–
To destroy the Republican Party.
To throw out the Reconstruction governments
Aid the planter class.
Prevent African Americans from exercising their political
rights.
Northern Support Wanes
 “Grantism” & corruption.
 Panic of 1873 [6-year
depression].
 Concern over westward
expansion and Indian wars.
 Key monetary issues:
*
should the government
retire $432m worth of
“greenbacks” issued during the Civil War.
*
should war bonds be paid back in specie or
greenbacks.
The End of Reconstruction: The Compromise of 1877
What did the Republicans and Democrats gain from the Compromise of 1877, and why were
southern blacks the real losers of the deal?
• Gains for Republicans:
Rutherford B. Hayes, their candidate in the election of 1876, takes office.
• Gains for Democrats:
Federal troops removed from Louisiana and South Carolina.
Support for a bill subsidizing the Texas and Pacific Railroad’s construction of a southern
transcontinental line
Contested states – 19 total electoral votes